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Dec 13, 2012Twenty-one discs address it in explosively comprehensive detail for The Box, all seven of Blur's full-lengths now doubled by a brimming parallel disc of era singles, B-sides, demos, and live swaths.
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MagnetOct 1, 2012It's all here - all seven studio albums, which, despite the hype, remain truly fantastic. [No.91, p.54]
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Q MagazineAug 20, 2012As with the Beatles, the outtakes and rarities are the best place to appreciate the abundance of songwriting chops and interpersonal chemistry Blur had at their disposal. [Sep 2012, p.118]
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Jul 31, 2012There were plenty of other great British bands of the '90s but none of their peers--Oasis, Suede, Pulp, Radiohead--covered as much stylistic ground or wound up with a catalog as rich as this ridiculously generous box set handily proves.
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Jul 31, 2012Unlike many career-spanning sets, Blur 21 is perfectly arranged, with each studio album living on its own disc, accompanied by another disc of era-specific bonus material like singles, compilation tracks, remixes and more.
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Jul 31, 2012The bonus material contains an abundance of amazing, weird, and brilliant moments. But the type of extras included-like a disc of demos from Blur's early years, when the band went by Seymour--will likely only interest completists.
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Jul 31, 2012Blur 21: The Box documents [the band's evolution] with a staggering breadth of material-even the B-sides and unreleased material feel uniformly strong. It's a complete and necessary document for a band so important to their country's music and to music in general.
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Jul 31, 2012For its breadth and complexity, [Blur 21] actually tells a simple story: Blur are a band that did an astonishing amount of different things really, really well.
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Jul 31, 2012There'll never be another band like them. And if this is really it and they leave Blur to the history books, then it's a perfect way to remember this unique, occasionally annoying, but genuinely quite amazing band.
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Jul 30, 2012It's a treasure trove of Britpop and English musical history, a veritable panoply of musical goodness.
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Jul 26, 2012Still, if 21 represents all there is or is ever going to be, it's hard not to be hugely impressed. As sarcophagi go, it's a spectacularly well-appointed one.
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Jul 24, 2012Teeming with B-sides, live tracks, and demos, much of it previously unreleased, 21 is both exhaustive and indispensable.
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Jul 23, 2012This is a glorious summation of Blur's career, placing them firmly amongst the very best bands of all time.
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Jul 19, 2012A magical must.
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MojoJul 19, 2012Blur 21's extraordinary warts'n'all scope makes its subject's odyssey momentous and tangible. [Aug 2012, p.98]
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UncutJul 19, 2012You don't get bands like Blur very often. They deserve great boxsets, and this feels like one. [Aug 2012, p.85]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 40 out of 47
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Mixed: 2 out of 47
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Negative: 5 out of 47
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Aug 6, 2012
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Aug 13, 2012
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Oct 11, 2012